It was generally agreed that this would be an amusing idea. People are welcome to suggest possible conspiracies and groups for them to control.
I actually got round to creating a version of Cambridge Illuminati in the second year, but never was sufficiently bored to write out all the cards. I can list them if desired ;). One interesting aspect was the replacement of the alignments -
Town / Gown
Establishment / Revolutionary
Eccentric / Normal
Geeky / Arty / Sporty
Fanatic
Society
I'm unsure whether fanatics were against all fanatics or if it was societies against all other societies. --Angoel
AlexChurchill thinks societies definitely shouldn't get a bonus on other societies, and probably should be all against each other. Maybe fanatics too.
Suggested abbreviations: T / G, Es / Re, Ec / No, Gy / Ay / Sy, F, S...
Power 2 Resistance 4 Income 3 Revolutionary Eccentric Fanatic
What have I started??? I was joking!
I'm sure a number of excellent creative enterprises were started as a joke :)
Suggest your own!
PeterTaylor thought a bit about this on a many-hour train journey. He hasn't filled out the details, nor had he considered the alignments (Angoel's look reasonable), but he has identified a few potential cards:
Notation: Cardname [P3/2, R4, I1] (alignments) {special abilities} <discussion>. Or [R4, I1] if no attacking power.
AssassinsGuild [P0/4, R3, I1] (society, eccentric, revolutionary, geeky) {needs ability} CDC (society, establishment) CUSU (gown, revolutionary/establishment? PT reckons neither, society) {some bonus for controlling Student Newspapers} CICCU [P4, R6, I2] (society, gown, establishment, fanatic) CULES (society) CUIS? (gown, society, fanatic?) GamesEvening Regulars [P2, R2, I2] (eccentric, and mostly geeky) {+4 bonus to control GamesAndPuzzles} CUMS? (gown, society, arty) [P4, R6, I5] <CUMS? has as much income as TrinityCollege?> <Well, they're one of the biggest and well-funded societies. TrinityCollege should probably have about 8 or 10, even if this is on a logarithmic scale, but we have to retain *some* gameplay balance...> <What's the real-life income of New York? That's one of the real cards and, IIRC, has income 6> <But most of the real cards represent groups of people across large chunks of the USA at least, and so the incomes there are massively more than just restricted to Cambridge. Scaling and/or a logarithmic scale mean TrinityCollege comes out well ahead of almost all other CambridgeIlluminati groups. But I still think it shouldn't exceed 6 or 7 for game balance.> CCMS (gown, society, arty, eccentric) [P2, R4, I2] CMS [P3, R3, I2] (gown, geeky, eccentric)
moved to put all the confusingly-similarly-named ones together
GirtonCollege (gown) TrinityCollege [P5, R6, I5] (gown, establishment) King's College [P3, R5, I3] (gown, revolutionary) Regent House (establishment) MagdaleneCollege (gown, establishment) Blue Boat (gown, sporty) Computer Lab [P3/3, R4, I3] (gown, geeky) {bonus for controlling Blue Boat} Cavendish Lab [P4, R5, I4] (gown, geeky) JesusCollege (gown, sporty) Judge Institute (gown, establishment) Trinity Mathmos [P3, R3, I2] (gown, fanatic, geeky) Student Newspapers [P2/1, R2, I1] (gown, revolutionary, fanatic) Cambridge Evening News sellers [P2, R2?, I2] (town, normal) The Homeless [P0/3, R2, I0] {transferable power only usable on Revolutionary groups} Greene King (town?, normal) 5th Avenue (town, normal) <if it still exists? or maybe even if it doesn't?> - I think you mean 'Cindys'... Steven Hawking [R4, I2] (gown, establishment, eccentric) CambridgeUnderground [P0/2, R5, I3] (revolutionary, eccentric) Careers Service [] (normal) Language School Students [R2, I2] (town, normal) <Should perhaps be neither town nor gown?> <Well, because they're definitely not UniversityOfCambridge, which would be what "gown" implies, and they do a number of the kind of things that "townies" stereotypically do...> Boaties [P2, R5, I3] (gown, sporty, society, fanatic) <Normal? Boaties? Fanatic, surely?> -- <Fanatic, definitely. Normal, well... as opposed to eccentric - remember this is all in Cambridge, so "normal" will need a slightly skewed meaning anyway ;)> <Normal students are not out of bed at 06:00, unless it's because they've just got back from a night out.> <Okay, agreed...> Porters [P6, R6, I0] (establishment, normal) Trinity Ball Committee [P3, R3, I3] (establishment, society) Conservators of the River Cam [R2, I1] (town, normal) Medics [R4, I3] (gown, fanatic) Addenbrookes' NHS Trust [] (town) {bonus for controlling Medics?} GamesAndPuzzles [P3, R2, I3] (town, geeky) Sainsbury's [P0/3, R5, I4] (town, normal) {transferrable power only usable in attacks on Gown groups} Jimmy's Nightshelter [P1, R5, I0] (town, revolutionary) {ability?} SinisterGreenendOrganisation [P0/4, R4, I1] (eccentric, geeky) {ability?} AnneCampbell [P3, R6, I2] (establishment, town, normal) {-3 to any attempt to be controlled by CUSU or Student Newspapers; +2 in addition to normal bonus when she attempts to control any group sharing an alignment } TrinityCollegeCat? [P1, R1, I1] (gown) TheSenate? (gown) <Is that the SenateHouse?, or something else?> <A group of people who meet in it and complain about RegentHouse?.> A14 [P5, R6, I2] (town, establishment) CyclingCampaign? [P2/2, R3, I1] (town, normal, fanatic) Newnham Riverbank Club [P1/3, R4, I1] (eccentric) Big Issue Vendors [P2, R3, I2] (town, revolutionary) Saturday Lunchtime Campaigners [P2, R3, I0] (town, revolutionary) {} <image should have some "issue-of-the-week" reference> <Why town?> <To distinguish them from the studenty campaigners> <Are student campaigners a group of their own?> Semi-Liberated Grad Student Army [P1/1, R8, I0] (gown, revolutionary, eccentric, geeky, society, fanatic) West Cambridge Cacophony Orchestra [R3, I3] (gown, society, arty, eccentric) <spoof of WestCambridgeSymphonyOrchestra, for those who don't know> Interesting Buskers [P2, R4, I2] (town, arty, eccentric, fanatic) SheilaAndHerDog? [P1, R3, I3] (gown, eccentric, society) {needs ability} CUCAS [P2, R3, I1] (gown, society, arty or geeky?) <Definitely geeky -- ExPresident?> Unelected University Vice-Chancellor [P3, R3, I4] <Aren't they elected by the Senate?> (gown, establishment) {ability? indicating how unpopular they are with studenty groups somehow?} CURS (gown, society, geeky, fanatic) SMOC? (establishment, society, geeky) {bonus for controlling CURS?} TINSMOC? (establishment, fanatic) {bonus for controlling CURS, forces discard of SMOC?} <That description would sound more competent if I remembered any of Illuminati's rules...> CUSFS (society, geeky, eccentric) [P3, R4, I2] <don't know whether to make them "gown" or not. In one sense, they're incredibly gown; but in another, well over half of the membership isn't actually formally in the university any more... or is that not the case any more?>
The groups I had with my attempt were Trinity, CUSU, the University Library, Greenend, the Old Schools, BermudaFen, Microsoft and the Government. --Angoel
How about [TheApostles] (one of the more or less prestigious secret dining societies)
TheLemmings? (think chaos worshipping, cars on senate house roof, and having rag week as thier high holy day) [TheStudySociety] (A secret meditation / MeaningOfLife cult controlling various nobel laureats - collect one of each alignment) --Pallando
You know, this page is just begging to be turned into a BNF generator. "The StudySociety? use the NobelLaureats? [P3,R3,I1] (Gown,Geeky,Normal) to attack to control the Trinity Mathmos [P3,R3,I2] (Gown,Fanatic,Geeky) owned by SinisterGreenendConspiracy?; the get +2 on their attack, and succeed."
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